Audi's racing season will now begin at Le Castellet

Audi has announced that they will participate in the first round of the Le Mans Series - the 8 Hours of Le Castellet to help them prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

This adds to participation in the 1000km of Spa, the second round of the Series.

The team hopes to race their R15+ car at the race. It is worth noting that Peugeot has not entered this race.

"We’re on schedule with the additional developments we’re making on the R15 TDI and so this race should be possible," says Head of Audi-Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "Le Castellet is a race track that lends itself pretty well to testing for Le Mans, and we’ve frequently used this circuit for our Le Mans preparation. The 8-hour race distance makes the race of further interest to us."

Audi had previously been refused entry to the 12 Hours of Sebring as the R15+ would not be available for that race and the R15 was ineligible due to the ACO rule changes for 2010. The Audi squad have been at Sebring testing over the previous few days.

This too, however has come under the spotlight as rumours have emerged that IMSA, wanting to assist a supporter, could dump the Peugeot entry for Sebring and allow Audi to race. How this would happen is unclear.

But either way, Audi will be competing in at least two Le Mans Series races, maybe more. They have two full season entries into the Le Mans Series season through the Joest team. This does not mean they have to run the full season.

Purely for logistical reasons, Audi Sport Team Joest has registered for the 2010 Le Mans Series. "But this should not at all be interpreted to mean that we will be contesting all five LMS races," said Dr. Ullrich. "At the moment, we are only planning to race at Le Castellet, Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone."

Sam Tickell